Upwork Is Officially Dead / It's Become a Cheap Casino Where They Let Anyone In

[1cac6772]

I've been saying this now since mid 2023, but I fully believe Upwork is officially dead. Up until 2023, I was doing over 100k each year on Upwork. I was Top Rated Plus and very close to Expert Vetted. I never really had to apply to jobs and just received invitations. Around the middle of last year whenever they implemented the boost system is when everything changed. My profile views dropped to ZERO and I couldn't get ANY jobs. I haven't landed a client via Upwork since mid 2023. 

* For the love of God, moderators PLEASE do not send me a link on how to improve my profile *

Up until January 2024 I had not been playing the bidding/boosting game. I just thought it would be a waste of money. So around January 1st 2024 I decided to give Upwork one last chance and try it. I bought $500 worth of connects to spend for the whole month of January. What I did was a combination of a few different things. I boosted my profile with 75 connects per day. Meaning whenever someone clicked on my profile, I was charged 75 connects. The other thing I did which was less common was boost some direct jobs that I applied to. If I saw a job that really fit, I would boost it and this was usually anywhere from 50 - 100 connects per job. I stopped all boosting February 1st 2024 and here are my results. The vast majority of days Upwork would take out my 75 connects, but I never received a job invite or anything. So I supposed this means somebody clicked on my profile and then left. There were 2 occassions where I received a job invite. The first one was for a $25 job and the other one was for $5 per hour. I did not get or take either one of those jobs. When it came to boosting my propsoal to the #1 spot for anywhere between 50 - 100 connects, I never received a single reply to any of those jobs. So what was the outcome of my $500 test for January 2024................. well basically that I just wasted $500. The point of this test was to see if paying for connects and boosting was the way to get jobs in this new Upwork system. And it clearly is not.

But I went several years without having to apply to jobs and making well over 100k to now not being able to land a single job in a year. And now I've played the boost/bidding game and it CLEARLY doesn't work. It's crazy how many freelancers have complained about this system, yet Upwork does not give a crap. Upwork is clearly a drain of money and time at this point. On top of that it seems that so many quality clients have left the platform, which I don't blame them at all. If I posted a job and then my inbox was flooded with hundreds of unqualified people, I would also stop using it. They used to filter results by the most qualified and relevant freelancers. Now they just display whoever pays the most connects. Upwork has now just become this cheap casino full of unqualified freelancers who are willing to buy unlimited connects. At this point, all I can hope for is that someone will start building a new freelancer platform that is good. It's unfortunate that Upwork decided to go this route. But I think it's safe to say that "Upwork Is Now Officially Dead".

At this point it's gotten so out of control, it's almost comical. The other day I was playing around with my project catalog, and guess what they had an option for? You guessed it.......the option to boost. Before long every single aspect of the platform will require some sort of paying for connects. Want to log in to your account.....that will be 16 connects. Want to contact support......that will be 16 connects. Want to have the privledge of having an Upwork account.......that will be 16 connects per day. At what point does the corporate GREED stop? But to them it's justified because they had record profits in 2023. Forget that quality people are leaving the platform and it's become worse than Fiverr. But hey as long as the board members and shareholders are happy, everything is all good. 

PS

Every time I turn on the TV now I see a cheesy Upwork commercial. There is no telling how many millions of dollars they are spending on these lame zombie commercials. Just think if they invested that money back into the platform to make it better. 

But no, their marketing plan is to spend millions of dollars on tv commercials to drive new unqualified signups. Then their goal is to milk those people into having to buy connects. Sure, a lot will leave very soon after they realize they can't land a job. But that's ok because their awesome zombie commercials will continue to drive new sign ups. I'm not 100% certain, but I think they might have hired the marketing team from Bud Light for their recent marketing efforts. Now that Upwork has driven away a lot of good clients over the last few years as well as brought it's integrity into question by most freelancers, they've got some serious issues to address moving forward if they ever want to regain the trust of both clients and freelancers. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tR3SRJ0UQ8w

[fa9d1717]

You know what? I am glad to have an account here in the forum section. I've learned a lot! I did have an old account in Upwork even my friends way back when works in Upwork and we NOTICED the big difference thank you for speaking out! Have you noticed? those who are against the truth are the ones who are satisfied with what they have? 

[melaniekhenson]

UpWork is a lot bigger than it used to be.

I had a lull last fall in work, now I'm getting approaches again.

I have always said jobs (real jobs) come and go in waves and I am usually told how wrong I am, but this has been my experience being with UpWork since 2017.

[f974cfdc]

Thanks Dale. Sorry for your seemingly bad experience with Upwork. It is sad for me to hear your story at a time when I have just re-connected with Upwork after a twelve-month absence. 

And your input here is a big eye opener for me!

I'm a trained writer and I had thought I would somewhat succeed with Upwork. This has not been the case for me so far. But I just decided to give freelance work with Upwork another try this year.

Dale you might not be in the IT field nor a highly resourced person, but you can give it a try. Why not rally some like-minded individuals -- some among them might by better resourced than you and me -- and then start a parallel platform? Competition is the game of any good business. And quality input should be made a priority for any good, ethically-tuned business.

To tell the truth, Dale, your story has somewhat dampened my writer spirit. But I've just rejoined the Platform and it would be insane for me to  pull out soon after rejoining.

Kindly keep me in touch; I’m interested to join you and your ilk in some other alternative freelancing path you (s/pl.) might later think of starting.

David O. Dickens, in Nairobi, Kenya.

(**Edited for community guidelines**)

[berg_shari]

You're not wrong. I was top-rated plus here until recently. Most of the high-quality clients I worked with previously have left the platform because they got tired of the slow customer service response (if they got one at all) and the other issues plaguing this site since the spring of 2023. 

I stopped trying to find more work here and have put my efforts in elsewhere. I know it's sad, especially for those of us who have been here a long time (my time dates back to Odesk). But the sooner we accept this platform is dead, the sooner we can move on and find clients elsewhere. 

[73feb28d]

Hi Shari, Are you using any other  alternative platforms, besides Freelancer and Fiverr?

[thomasbrowninc]

Preach baby 🙏 - It's getting bad. I agree with a lot of what you said and have felt similar recently. 

[alex-nemchyn]

I wonder how many of us are in this boat?
If you're in that boat, put a +.

[anthonycorpuz]

I've been on this platform since 2011. I've witnessed the merger of Elance and Odesk and the IPO offering last 2018. Then came the pandemic in 2020. Everything was going smoothly up until 2022. Back in the day, my main goal was to build my reputation by providing quality results to clients, earning 5-star feedback, and earning a 100% job success score. Being top-ranked also puts you at the top of search results. All of these don't matter anymore. The search result is dependent on how much you spend on boosting your profile. Same with applying for a job. It pleases the shareholder side, but I don't see it as long-term revenue because new freelancers will soon learn that spending a large amount of money doesn't guarantee you landing a job. I currently spend connects on application and availability, but there's no way I'll be using boost your profile and bid on a job. Clients will soon realize that contractors who bid high and boost their profiles don't mean they will deliver a great job. It will always be dependent on the job success score and overall feedback.

[yofazza]

That's what WE think. But when we see threads about people accepting Upwork's game where 'proposal volume' matters now (including me, although I don't do it), or thread where someone aims to send 400 proposals a month, you'll realize Upwork still has plenty of time before everything might start to turn against them.

And they must also already have a set of contingency plans for when it starts to happen.

[tjmisny]

I want to thank Dale the original poster for his candid message.  I am an Expert Vetted freelancer with early $400k in earings + only 5 star reviews and I have experienced a similar decline.  

I agree that Upwork management has turned this fruitful marketplace into a casino.  I boost every post I can and still less than half of my posts are even viewed.  Some days I apply to 4-6 in a day that are never even viewed, despite writing a custom cover letter and writing detailed responses to every client's inane question.

Clients can post for free... but freelancers have to pay to apply, pay to boost, pay to advertise, pay to say we are available, pay to be "Plus" members so we can bid competiivtely, and then get 10% of our wages taken... so we can have the privledge to pay to apply, pay to boost, pay to advertise, pay to say we are available, pay to be "Plus" members.... etc.  But clients can still post for free.

The obvious solution here is to lessen the burden of paying to exist on Upwork as a freelancer by making clients pay even a nominal amount per post.  Just think if Upwork charged even $1 per client post.  Craigslist even charges 10$ to post a job.

It's so obvious that Upwork is exploiting the desparation of freelancers to keep their ship afloat.  Maybe it's the client's turn to pony up to keep their bazaar of minimum wage talent up and running?  

[73feb28d]

I am so surprised that this is not the case 🙂 No wonder why there are so many ghost jobs 🙂

[wlyonsatl]

Thomas J M,

It looks to me like clients can't post their jobs or make payments to freelancers for free:

Client Marketplace and Contract Initiation Fees – Upwork Customer Service & Support | Upwork Help

[tjmisny]

Will - what you are saying is not relevant to my point. 

Clients can POST a job for free.  There is an initaition fee when they decide to start a contract, yes.  But judging from the dozens of inactive jobs that I have paid to apply to, most posts do not lead to anyone being hired.

Any jamoke can post a job for free and then totally ignore the post they made... while all of us pay to post, pay to boost, pay to advertise, pay to say we are available, pay to be "Plus" members so we can bid competiivtely, and then get 10% of our wages taken... so we can have the privledge to pay to apply, pay to boost, pay to advertise, pay to say we are available, pay to be "Plus" members.... etc. 

But clients can still post for free.

Clients need to start paying to post so this platform doesn't collapse.  

[crart]

---

so this platform doesn't collapse.  

---

It collapsed already. There is no sustain when you base it on greed, data manipulation, scamming its own users. I bet if someone legit wanted to check facts, like truly active freelancers and clients, those who actually enter real contracts and present professional attitude, the numbers would be alarmingly low. Upwork is no longer about professionalism, work and fair play, it's only casino as it was said many times. By allowing anyone to register and "become freelancer" they essentially shot themselves in the foot. Obviously bandaids they're trying are not working because people are leaving this deserted place.

[atreglia]

---

 Will L wrote:

It looks to me like clients can't post their jobs or make payments to freelancers for free:

Client Marketplace and Contract Initiation Fees – Upwork Customer Service & Support | Upwork Help

---

Will, Contract Initiation Fees are only incurred after a contract begins.  This means clients can still go fishing for free.

[1cac6772]

Or better yet, post a job. Then contact the top 50 freelancers in their industry and ask for a FREE consultation. Then after they've received 50 free consultations, they decide not to hire anyone or "do it themselves". Just taking advantage and abusing freelancers. Meanwhile Upwork knows this has been going on for years and has implemented nothing to stop it.

[tjmisny]

That link refers to HIRING. Hiring is not free, but POSTING A JOB is.  Anybody off the street can post a job for free whether or not they are serious about hiring, whether or not they have the funds to hire, whether or not they are even a real person.  But we still have to pay to apply, pay to boost, etc etc. 

[1cac6772]

For some reason which I've never fully understood is why Upwork has always valued the clients more than the freelancers. I can assure you if clients had an issue like we were all experiencing and then voiced it, it would have been fixed the next day. Yes, I understand that there are way more freelancers than clients. But the vast majority of these people are unqualified and/or inactive. If you really broke down how many really qualified freelancers are on this platform, the numbers would be way lower. Probably much lower than the total number of clients. And in my opinion the quality  freelancers are what make this platform. If you don't have them, then you don't have anything. Upworks complete disregard to listen to us freelancers says everything you need to know about them as a company.

What have they done to address this issue.......absolutely nothing. Except for hiring moderators to send you a copy and paste message on how to fix your profile. Do they not understand how insulting that is to verified freelancers? I think they do, they just don't care. It's either pay to play or your profile is going to be so buried so deep that no one will ever see it. But at the same time, you can spend 1k per month on connects and maybe not even land a single job.

[brach]

Couldn't agree more. Been looking for a new assignment for 3+ months by now, being a Top Rated Plus freelancer with 900k+ invoiced, you would think I should be a wanted professional. Mind you, I have been on the platform for more than 12 years now.

So far, not a single serious assignment, not even after spending $200 on connects. What a joke....

[tjmisny]

That's infuriating, Marc.  I feel similarly and I've only been on the platform for 3 years.  I feel that us veterans with high-earning accounts are being taken advantage of - it's as if the platform assumes that we will spend hundreds a month on connects just to maintain a sense of normalacy in our earnings.  

[shaunkahler]

Can confirm. I along with lots of other veteran freelancers (I am actually Expert-Vetted) stopped using the platform approximately at the same time. It would appear Upwork is now heavily in the business of manipulating freelancers for non-existent jobs. The "casino" is real, and the outcomes speak for themselves.

(I mean when they changed their UI and colors to puke green/blue/purple I knew something bad was happening.)

[wlyonsatl]

I see your point, Thomas J M.

Unfortunately, I'd guess there is zero chance Upwork, which so badly needs new revenue sources in order to eventually report sustainable profits to shareholders, will require clients to pay to post new jobs to test the waters to see what kind of freelancers apply who are willing to potentially waste their costly connects in order to apply where no hire is ever made.

Upwork made some big changes in its own cost structure in the three months ended September 30, which is why the company was finally able to report decent earnings to shareholders. We'll find out in a few days what they did in the December quarter to keep that going.

[tjmisny]

From my perspective, if Upwork DOESN'T impliment some kind of system to make clients to pay to post, the entire thing will collapse.  

[wlyonsatl]

Thanks, Anna T. Thomas J M also pointed that out above.

We can see on each new project page a client's record of posting jobs and hiring freelancers, such as:

179 jobs posted
37% hire rate, 1 open job
$4.3K total spent
76 hires, 8 active

Of course, clients new to Upwork won't have such a record, and are much more of a crap shoot for the freelancer deciding whether or not to send a proposal.

[alexandernovikov]

In my experience, new clients are better than old-timers because they are less paranoid, they haven't been burned multiple time with freelancer fraud yet so it's easier to work with them. So filtering clients who don't yet have a long history is a bad idea. Someone who spent 10 years as a client on Upwork with many hires, is bound to either become a sociopath or go out of business due to pervasive freelancer fraud 🙂 just try to register as a client and post some jobs, you'll see what kind of "people" (in quotes because frequently they aren't even people really) will apply.

[dlacrem]

Nowadays nobody even gets to see my proposals, when a few months ago I was getting one interview per proposal. There's a total disconnect between clients and freelancers in Upwork with whatever update they've done.

I'm very selective on the work I propose to, and I'm confident they'd be interested in talking to me, but my proposals are not viewed at all, so when the clients don't get to see the freelancers who would get the job done well, and the freelancers don't get the chance to be seen by clients who would love them, what you get is a massive drop in satisfaction, leading to a much lower activity.

It's a pity but I don't think anyone is happy with the current state of Upwork, excepting those trying to sell courses on how to navigate this lava pit. Even Upwork must be noticing that they're losing us.

[tjmisny]

This has been my experience as well, Carlos.  

The problem is - when clients look through candidates, they see that a dozen of them including the ones with limited experience are labeled "Best Match", there's four people of random quality at the top who Boosted, the range of quality even within the "Top Rated Plus" badge is pretty vast... and there's people from third world countries (I do not mean this disrespectully) bidding for $5/hour, versus professionals bidding at actual professional rates... and the middle ground people who are trying to bid closer to the third world country rates to be competitive....

Imagine that you are a client - it's an utter nightmare trying to figure out who is qualified unless you are an expert in the field in which you are posting.  

Upwork has let this happen.  They have destroyed credibility as a marketplace - and now clients do not trust the marketplace enough to go through with a hire.

[1cac6772]

Thomas

You bring up a good point that I haven't seen made very often. And that is, most clients don't trust Upwork enough to go through with a hire nowadays. This may partly explain why now you see a client send out 50 proposals. I don't really use the Client side of the platform, but I can only imagine what a circus it is. Like you said, someone posts a job and the first applicant they see is some unqualified freelancer that just spent 300 connects to boost. If you are the client, you go......this is the best talent that is on Upwork. Then they just say I've had enough and I'm not going to go through the hundreds of unqualified proposals. So in the end they just don't hire or go and post the job on Indeed or LinkedIn. Meanwhile all of us qualified freelancers are sitting here with our profiles buried so deep nobody will ever find them. These days the only action I get on my profile is from freelancers in India wanting to connect and be friends. How is it that these people can somehow find my profile, yet a single client can't?

The hardest part for me is knowing that I spent several years building up my profile. 300k in earnings, 100% Job Success Score, All 5 Star Reviews, a great portfolio. All for what......for my profile to be non-existent and buried starting in 2023.

Can you imagine sitting in the Upwork board room when they pitch this new business model? They are like, hey we've got this new business model. We're going to spend millions of dollars on tv commercials with zombies to drive new sign ups. We'll then get these new sign ups to think that if they spend hundreds of dollars each month on connects to boost their profile to the #1 spot, they'll be able to get the job. Meanwhile we know that they are probably unqualified and that the client won't hire them. But it's ok that the freelancers spend money and don't get the job. And it's ok that the client doesn't find a hire. Because in the end, we made all of this money from people having to buy connects. And sure we're going to lose a lot of quality clients and freelancers along the way as well as devalue the platform. But think about how much money we could make in the short term.

And the fact that there were people high up that signed off on this. They were like YEAH that business model sounds amazing.

[tjmisny]

A circus really is the perfect way to describe it.  I've hired as a client around $50k.  The platform will label somebody with $0 in completed projects and no JSS as "Best Match" when I specify I am seeking intermediate or expert level work.  As a client, why I am going to hire someone with no credibility?   Sometimes over a dozen freelancers from varying skill levels are labeled "Best Match" - some with badges, some with $0 in earnings and no JSS, some with low JSS ratings.  It's totally arbirtary.   It makes the platform look like a joke.  

I've been trying to bring this concern to Upper Management for over a year and I keep getting ignored.  

[1cac6772]

All of these things have been going on for quite a while now and Upwork is well aware of them. And instead of trying to fix these things, they continue to make it worse and roll out more ridiculous boost features. So unfortunately, I do not believe Upper Management cares or is going to doing anything to remedy the situation.

Also why is it that Upwork allows clients to not only post FREE jobs, but then not even have to verify their payment? They are essentially telling clients to go ahead and post, but don't worry about hiring. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see a job that requires 16 connects, yet the client doesn't even have payments verified or any reviews. 

[alexandernovikov]

What's the problem if lots of unqualified people will spend a lot of money on connects to boost? Upwork makes money, market pressures through stakeholders will force it to spend that money on ads to bring more clients... Everyone becomes better off.

As i said 10 years ago when connects system was first announced (back then it cost 2 connects to bid on any project), "if connects were $15 instead of $0.15 everyone would be better off", and we are now finally getting closer to that situation ("bidding on a project in a way you will be seen may cost $30").

Spend half an hour writing a thoughtful proposal on every project you bid on. It will cost you anywhere from $20 to $100 depending on what your effective rate is. Then spending some cash to boost it will come naturally.

[1cac6772]

There is definitely a total disconnect between what's going on in the Upwork board room and what's going on in the Upwork platform, that's for sure.

[razvanel1312]

I follow how UpWork behaves very closely and something strange has happened after middle of January. I've also been getting a lot of invitations/direct messages/consultations from clients since April-May last year. First part of January has been great as well with a lot of invitations and I secured a few jobs. Somehow things have started to shift a little bit. For a couple of weeks I've only been getting invitations from clients who have very small budgets. (e.g.: $25 - $50) This happened to me very rarely before. Most of the invitations were from clients with decent budgets who were looking for freelancers with high expertise.

Also, what I noticed is that these invites that I've been getting came from clients that were new to the platform. I would assume that UpWork's algorithm would recommend freelancers who charge more to clients with appropriate budgets. It doesn't make any sense to recommend me as a freelancer who charges $50/h to a client who wants a logo design for $25.

On the other side, I have noticed a change in their "Boost Profile" feature. I have been using it for many months but when I was checking the analytics, I rarely got impressions from boosting my profile. Now, they started to prioritise this and it looks like they are draining my connects from showing my profile and getting invites with a very low budget. So this is pretty irrelevant. I wouldn't mind spending connects on jobs that are actually relevant to my rates. Maybe there could be an improvement in the way they match freelancers with clients. 

I can also say that last year around the same time I saw a drop in profile views, invitations, work, etc. which lasted for a few months and started to pick-up after April-May. Maybe the rotation system does work indeed and it's just a dry patch, but I need to keep an eye on things in order to actually get a proper idea about everything.

It looks like you will now need to spend hundreds of dollars to keep up with UpWork's new regulations/algorithms which I understand from a business owner point of view. But if we keep spending money without seeing any ROI, I doubt this would do the platform any good. I have a feeling that they are trying to prioritise the new clients on the platform and to show them the true potential so they keep using UpWork. It does look like they are focusing on some short-term marketing strategies instead of long-term ones. Their short-term strategies may seem to work at the moment, but I don't know how sustainable this will be.


It's actually pretty annoying because if you want to do full-time freelancing, you can never rely on UpWork to bring you some consistency over a long perdion of time. But freelancing's challenging and unpredictable and I believe that everyone assumes risks when they commit to it.

Anyway, let's hope things will fall into place soon.

[tjmisny]

Razvan - I've come to the same conclusion.  Upwork has to tilt the algorithm in favor of newer freelancers because:

* Inexperienced/new freelancers show up ahead of experienced ones frequently in the search results

* Inexperienced/new freelancers get labeled "Best Match" when clients review list of candidates 

* As a result, inexperienced freelancers get more ROI for their boosts/ad spend and get seen by more clients

It's absoutely insulting that the freelancers who have been here for longer and who help keep this platform solvent get hidden while freelancers who are unproven get extra promotion from the platform. (Especially because we all the know the reason:  Upwork wants to exploit these newcomers by getting them to spend more money to boost, post, advertise, show they are "Available", become Plus members.... $100s of month from each of them).

[celgins]

There have been a few discussions over the past several weeks about this. Not only does it appear that new freelancers are being favored (i.e., Upwork shows them how great the platform is and that"you too and make $1M dollars while sitting in your pajamas at home!"), it also appears certain skill categories are being shown prominently.

In early 2023, Upwork added more AI and machine learning categories like Generative AI, Chatbots, AI Content Writing, AI Speech & Audio Generation, AI Image Generation & Editing, and AI Video Generation & Editing. To me, it looks like profiles with these specialities are appearing higher in some search results since Upwork's customers are apparently requesting more AI freelancers.

Since you are Expert-Vetted, I did a quick experiment to see where you might appear, and if any inexperienced freelancers appear ahead of you. Note: this is a client search using keywords; not where you might appear in a client's Invite Freelancers list.

1) Using one of your main skill categories (Explainer Video), I searched U.S.-based freelancers. You did not appear on the first page. On the first page, there were 10 freelancers:

• All 10 freelancers' profiles are Public
• Exactly five (5) profiles were either Expert-Vetted, Top-Rated Plus, or Top-Rated
• Exactly five (5) profiles had no status badge, but four (4) had the Availability badge turned on; JSS ranged from 84% to 100%; and none seemed woefully inexperienced

2) Using another main skill category (Cinematography), I searched U.S.-based freelancers. You did not appear on the first page. On the first page, there were 10 freelancers:

• All 10 freelancers' profiles are Public
• Exactly five (5) profiles were either Expert-Vetted, Top-Rated Plus, or Top-Rated
• Exactly five (5) profiles had no status badge, but three (3) had the Availability badge turned on; JSS ranged from 70% to 100%; and none seemed inexperienced

You can't see who is boosting their profiles in organic search results, but some of the profiles shown might be boosting. Even though boosted profiles are only shown in a clients' Invite Freelancers list, some freelancers believe if you spend higher amounts to boost your profile, it will appear more prominently in organic search results. My guess is, your profile might appear higher in a clients' Invite Freelancers list, even without boosting.

If you're open to it, you could try setting your profile to Public instead of Only Upwork users, and see if that makes a difference. With your credentials (i.e., JSS, earnings, badge, etc.), you really should appear on page one for your skill categories/keywords. Right now, however, the algorithm doesn't agree!

[tjmisny]

Clark - Thank you for doing that triage work.  Those insights are very relevant to me.  I've been doing similar searches -- no joke, at one point in 2022, my profile did not show up until over 200+ PAGES into the search.  I tried bringing this to upper management and my concerns were ignored.  I did however hear that Upwork was deeply aware that its search function was broken.  (Unclear if they feel its been fixed since?)

I suppose I will try putting my profile to Public and see if that help improve search results.... I very, very rarely get a non scam/spam invitation.  Maybe once or twice a year.  

What has always baffled me is, why doesn't Upwork do more to promote its most skilled/most proven freelancers?  People like me book the largest contracts - I've had several proejcts between $20k-$70k, for one project (all with 5-star results).  With one transaction, that's thousands in fees to Upwork, whereas a new freelancer might take 100 jobs to earn as much (and will be less likely to get 100% satisfaction and repeat business). 

Instead, Upwork is promoting the amateurs, alienating clients AND the expert freelancers in the process.  I'm not suggeting that Upwork become an exclusive Ferrari dealership, but there are expert freelancers in every category that could be driving massive business to Upwork, if the company would cultivate those relationships.  

[celgins]

This will get a bit "techie," so I apologize to those who are easily bored by this kind of stuff.

I did however hear that Upwork was deeply aware that its search function was broken.

This will sound like a cop out, but most machine learning algorithms are broken in some form or fashion--especially those like Upwork's, which makes predictions and recommendations for a very large and complex population of freelancers and clients. The programming or coding isn't bad; rather, these types of algorithms are constantly ingesting an enormous amount of data and information (i.e., freelancer skills, job descriptions, historical data [feedback, success indicators from similar jobs and relationships], how and when payments are transferred) and probably 20 other things.

Plus, the algorithms are constantly predicting future behavior across 500 different niches with 15-20 million users, so things stay complicated. I’m not making excuses for Upwork—they have the background, industry experience, and technical know-how to do better, but even their engineers probably cannot say definitively why Upwork’s ranking algorithms do the things they do.

What has always baffled me is, why doesn't Upwork do more to promote its most skilled/most proven freelancers?

Yeah—similar to what I mentioned above, there are a lot of complexities to matching clients and freelancers due to the uncertainties inherent to the process. Upwork and other freelancing platforms struggle with this and “tweaking” the algorithms almost always hurt millions of freelancer accounts.

Over the years, several colleges and universities have attempted to study and find better solutions to machine learning matching algorithms. As you might expect, their research found that the larger, more complex the information and datasets, the bigger the challenges in generating accurate, meaningful results. This is especially true when you have millions of accounts, millions of interactions, and an unimaginable amount of data.

In my opinion, the Stanford PhDs who developed Upwork's matching algorithms probably couldn’t tell us exactly why they behave the way they do today. They probably wouldn't even recognize it.

But I don't think the algorithm is the real problem--I think it works "okay" for the most part. The problem is the ridiculously large volume of unskilled, unqualified freelancers and scam jobs on Upwork. If there were an estimated 890,000 clients posting quality jobs; 3 million qualified and skilled freelancers available; and almost no scams--the algorithm would mix and match freelancers to clients just fine.

[yofazza]

I totally understand if new freelancers or those with a bad JSS, etc., are being favored by the algo, because every 'money source' needs to have an equal(*) chance. Equal perception of opportunity, to be exact.

But it's true about broken things, blank profiles labeled as best match (as written a few times here) is definitely broken.

Not responding to Clark, as for why Upwork is doing it, it's simply because they can't profit with a "high-quality freelance marketplace".

I'll do the same. If I had a business that legally tricks or 'games' people, I wouldn't trade that for a 'high quality' thing that has proven to result in net losses for nearly a decade. It's the people, who need to be careful not to get caught in the game.

I've been here since 2009. If I had focused on this platform all these years, I would be very sad today knowing that after 5-20% of my money is spent on the broker (who does not deserve fee in a long-term client-provider relationship IMO), they play with me as well.

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(*) Equal does not simply mean equal rotation, of course. Basically, "those who earn, stays. Those who stays spend". 

[tjmisny]

I'll make no excuses beacuse of the complexity of algorithms... algorithms are determined by people who have priorities (or who have strict orders from upper management).  It's clear that Upwork's upper management is prioritizing linking low-budget clients with cheap freelancers, rather than cultivating meaningful relationships between the most expert freelancers/agencies and the clients willing to spend the most amount of money.  It's clear that Upwork is compensating for lack of profit by draining freelancers' bank accounts by corraling us into a casino to even be noticed amidst the flurry of cheap jobs and cheap competitors who are given algorithmic priority.  

[crart]

Experience, relevance and skill are not something "clients" look for, no matter here or anywhere, including daily jobs. See, people with proper experience are dangerous, people that know their value are dangerous, skilled people are dangerous. Why? Because they are able to see through bs "clients" want to feed them, and they cost more. And by "clients" I mean those scammers, cheap wannabe-be-pros and other trash that comes here. Real clients wouldn't even look at irrelevant crap they receive first 10 minutes after posting a job. Which is why real clients run away from here - as they are fed exactly this, irrelevant mass of boosted proposals containing nothing meaningful - and UW seems happy, in the end, irrelevant can be a king only among even less relevant. Lowering standards and letting anyone in without any control works in favor of this platform's management. In a long run this will bite back, but if they could see ahead more than few weeks, they wouldn't come up with casino business model in the first place. Once a place for professionals, it's now worse than freelancer[dot]com.